The hunt for abducted Madeleine McCann was linked to South America today for the first time.
It is understood a mysterious call claiming to know the whereabouts of the four-year-old came from a mobile phone registered in Argentina.
The "credible" call was considered so potentially significant that the McCanns halted their search of Europe to help police investigate.
They delayed their flight from Berlin to Amsterdam by three hours and plans were drawn up to divert to the UK.Scroll down for more...

It was thought the McCanns might need to return to Britain to talk to specialist advisers about the call.
The call from the pay-as-you-go phone came from a man who wanted to speak directly to the McCanns, according to Spanish police sources.
He did not reveal his identity or nationality, but the phone was soon linked to the South American country.
All efforts to re-establish contact with the caller failed on Wednesday and the couple carried on with their journey around Europe.
A British police source said: "The importance of this line of inquiry is still being assessed and attempts to re-establish contact are continuing."
Although Spanish officials denied they had received the call, a Guardia Civil source told the Portuguese paper Correio de Manha: "Only time will tell if this call gives help or not to the case."
Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that a man matching the description released by Portuguese police two weeks ago was seen in a bar in Seville a week before Madeleine's abduction.
It claimed the man was working on the instruction of others and told fellow drinkers he was going to the Algarve.Scroll down for more...

Hope: Kate and Gerry McCann release yellow balloons today as the hunt for Madeleine goes on

The latest development comes on the day Portuguese police were forced to defend their reputation amid allegations that they were enjoying boozy lunches while the search for Madeleine continued. Armed police officers were also criticised by Madeleine's aunt for preventing her from putting up posters of the little girl at Lisbon Airport.
Senior police officers involved in the investigation were seen laughing and joking as images of the missing four-year-old and her desperate parents appeared on a restaurant TV screen.
It happened at a lunch lasting nearly two hours as Kate and Gerry McCann were away campaigning in Europe.
They laughed and cracked jokes as they enjoyed a meal washed down with wine and whisky - as footage of the couple played in the background.
Afterwards, they left a table littered with empty glasses - and went back to work.
Yesterday Policia Judiciara (PJ) spokesman Olegario Sousa, one of the officers spotted having lunch, said it was up to the individual to decide what he or she ate and drank.
Asked if it was acceptable for police to drink alcohol in their lunch break he said: "I don't know, it is very, very sad but a person's free time is for lunch. That is normal to do.
"The persons are in charge in the day, they are working in the day but they must eat and drink - it is normal.
"I drink what I want to drink when I can drink."
When it was put to him that he had been seen drinking, he said: "Have you seen anyone drunk? Have you seen any action deterred by that?"
Mr Sousa and Goncalo Amaral, head of the regional PJ, were spotted as Kate and Gerry McCann travelled to Berlin and Amsterdam to appeal for more information about their missing daughter.
In Portimao, a town near where the four-year-old was snatched 35 days ago, a diner at fish restaurant Carvi said he recognised the police officials.
"I knew who they were because Mr Sousa has been all over the TV and in the papers," he said.
The diner watched as officers enjoyed the lunch, which took place a short walk from the police station less than 24 hours after Kate and Gerry McCann were told that everything possible was being done to find their little girl.
Then - in what looked like becoming the first arrest in this case after nearly five weeks, a photographer trying to take a picture of them emerging from the restaurant was detained, held for four hours, fingerprinted, interviewed, and had his camera confiscated. He has now been formally named as an 'Arguido' - the same status as the chief suspect in Madeleine's disappearance, Robert Murat.Scroll down for more

A 'credible' caller claiming to know where Madeleine is gave enough detail for the McCanns to put a brief hold on their trip to Amsterdam

On Tuesday, two groups went to two separate restaurants. The bigger party did not begin to leave for an hour and three-quarters. The smaller party had a 50-euro meal of fish and wine and shared jokes between what appeared to be discussion about police business.
On Wednesday, the party included senior figures from police headquarters at Portimao, where the investigation is based. One of them was Ch Insp Olegario Sousa, the public face of the inquiry, who appears on TV at press conferences. Another was Goncalo Amaral, number three in the investigation and a well-known figure in major police operations.
At 12.50pm the two men strolled across a sun-drenched square to Carvi restaurant, a regular haunt that specialises in fresh seafood and lobster straight from the tank. Inside, they formed a table of four with two other officers.
The diner said: 'They asked for the Portuguese TV news to be switched on and sat at the table watching it. It must have been about 2pm. Madeleine's parents had given a press conference in Berlin and they came on the screen.'
At that Berlin conference, Gerry McCann had made it clear he was confident police were doing all they could to find Madeleine. During a live broadcast that morning he had said: 'We have had no doubts about the desire of the police to find Madeleine. We have witnessed their efforts first hand and they're working harder than Kate and I.'
The diner added: 'The police were laughing and joking among themselves while it was on. They seemed to be sharing some sort of joke. Whatever it was, I thought that laughing like that in public was in really poor taste.
'They had a bottle of chilled wine with the meal but they had a bottle of whisky on the table after the main course as well. I was pretty shocked to see they were drinking whisky at lunchtime. The bottle was passing between them for about half an hour.
'Someone on another table seemed to know them and joked about them having two-hour lunches and knocking back Johnnie Walker Black. He said they would get themselves in the papers.
'There was a guy in a red shirt holding court about Portuguese law. They were discussing a change in the law being planned for Arguidos.' (Portuguese for suspect).
Two of the party left, then Ch Insp Sousa left on his own, leaving a colleague behind.
'I got the impression they went there regularly - they were very friendly with the waiter. I don't know what time they came in but I was there for a good 90 minutes and when I left, one of them was still slumped back in his chair in the corner with the whisky bottle in front of him. He was a big sweaty guy and he was sagging into the chair. The table was littered with empty glasses.
'There was some sort of commotion and I heard someone shout out. They swore and said something about the 'Paparazzi Ingles' (English Paparazzi) hiding behind the door.'
One officer had insisted privately the Madeleine officers had been working 'punishing hours', sometimes sleeping overnight at the station in the early days of the inquiry.
Philomena McCann, Madeleine's aunt, said such behaviour would not be acceptable in the UK: "If it were detectives from Scotland Yard there would be absolute uproar.
"But we have to let them to get on with their work because that's all we have to rely on.
"It is a different country and we have to accept the way that they do things and that it is a different culture where they have lunches and siestas but we hope the work is made up at other times."
She then told how armed police officers stopped her putting up posters of the little girl at Lisbon airport.
She and another relative were travelling from the Algarve to the holy shrine at Fatima when they made a diversion to the airport.
Kate McCann had noticed there were no pictures up when she passed through on her way to Madrid.
"She was so upset to think there were so many tourists coming in and out and nothing there to remind people of Madeleine," said Ms McCann.
"She asked me to make a detour on the way. I was given permission to put the posters up by a woman on the information desk.
"But straightaway we were swooped on by two armed police officers. I was with a relative who was bodily manhandled by them.
"We went back to the information desk and there was a big row between the woman and the police."
Ms McCann said the director of the airport Dr Francisco Severino told them they could fax a request which would be considered.
"It would be fair to say we were unimpressed by their unhelpful attitude," she said. "We were very badly treated.
"It seemed clear they didn't want the negativity affecting tourism but I think they are doing the wrong thing.
"Surely if people think the police and the authorities are doing everything they can to find Madeleine other families visiting Portugal would feel more secure."
Ms McCann said she had asked junior Justice Minister Baroness Ashton to put pressure on to change their policy.
The McCanns are back in Portugal today ahead of a trip to Morocco, where there has been a reported sighting of Madeleine.
In Praia da Luz today, the couple watched as 1,000 yellow balloons calling for information about Madeleine were released into the air.
Meanwhile in Praia da Luz, the Algarve resort from which Madeleine vanished on May 3, police removed their 'do not cross' tape from the McCanns' holiday apartment and withdrew all police presence exceprt for one uniformed officer outside. Alipio Ribiero, national director of the Judicial Police, said: 'The Judicial Police are seriously investigating this case. It could take time but we continue in the Algarve, even if our presence is not noticed.'
The exhausted couple had their hopes dramatically raised that their daughter was still alive yesterday - only to see them dashed.
The couple's planned flight to Amsterdam on Wednesday night was held for three hours in Berlin after what appeared to be a crucial breakthrough.
They were told that a "credible call" had been received by Spanish police from a man suggesting he knew where Madeleine was and saying that he wanted to talk to the McCanns.
The call was reportedly traced to an unregistered pay-as-you-go phone outside Europe.
The caller did not disclose his identity, but the information supplied was apparently so specific that British police liaising with the Portuguese inquiry felt it necessary to tell the McCanns immediately.
The couple were advised that the mystery source might try to make contact, and that they should delay their flight in case he called when they were in the air.
As frantic efforts were made to re-establish contact with the caller the McCanns were whisked off the flight, waiting anxiously for nearly three hours at the British Embassy in Berlin. The man never called back.
Journalists on the plane were told that the crew had been asked to draw up a new flight plan involving a possible switch of destination from Amsterdam to East Midlands Airport, close to the McCanns' Leicestershire home.
But at 7.30pm the flight was cleared to continue to Amsterdam, where the McCanns pressed ahead with their European campaign to keep their daughter in the public mind.
Soon after they touched down, it appeared that the call was a hoax, or was no longer being treated with any urgency.
Spanish police categorically denied that they had received such a call, as did the Spanish Interior Ministry.
It was an illustration of the kind of distractions the McCanns are having to endure in their relentless search for information about Madeleine, who vanished more than a month ago during the family's holiday in Portugal.Scroll down for more ...

Four-year-old Madeleine has been missing since May 3

Another followed soon afterwards when a Spanish newspaper quoted an "investigative journalist" claiming he knew the identity of Madeleine's abductor, and suggesting she had been stolen to order by a paedophile ring.
Last night, however, there was no indication that police were investigating the claim.

I know where Madeleine is, says mystery manA mystery phone call from a man claiming to know the whereabouts of missing Madeleine McCann could provide a new lead in the case, it emerged today.

The caller provided such detail that Kate and Gerry McCann put their European search for their daughter on hold in case they needed to act.

However Spanish police have denied reports of the call.

"All I can say is that it is a lie," a National Police spokesman told The Associated Press. "I don't know where this came from but the police have no record of this call anywhere." Scroll down for more ...

A 'credible' caller claiming to know where Madeleine is gave enough detail for the McCanns to put a brief hold on their trip to AmsterdamThe official spoke on condition of anonymity under police ground rules.

The couple reportedly were informed of the potential development while in Germany, where they were appealing for information about their four-year-old child
.
It is 35 days since Madeleine was abducted from her bed in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.
The "credible" call was taken from a man who wanted to speak directly to the McCanns, according to a Spanish police source.

It was traced to an unregistered pay-as-you-go phone from an unidentified country but not thought to be Morocco, where a previous possible sighting of Madeleine was reported.

The caller did not reveal his identity or nationality, but the information was considered important enough to alert Mr and Mrs McCann, the source said.

At around 3pm yesterday, the couple - who were about to go to Tempelhof airport in Berlin to fly on to the Netherlands - were advised that the caller might try to contact them, so they stayed on at the British embassy.

At 6pm, journalists travelling in the eight-seater private jet with the McCanns were told by the flight crew that there might be a change in destination.

They revealed they had been asked to draw up a new flight plan involving a possible change from Amsterdam to East Midlands Airport.

It was thought the McCanns might need to go back to the UK to talk to advisers about the call. But all efforts to re-establish contact with the man failed and the couple decided to go on to Amsterdam.

They left Berlin at 7.30pm, three hours later than planned, for the hour-long flight to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam to continue their search.

Kate and Gerry McCann looked exhausted today as they prepared for the trip to Amsterdam and recovered from their shock at being asked if they had anything to do with Madeleine's abductionMr and Mrs McCann are thought to be on standby, ready to return to the UK if necessary.

A Spanish police source said: "A man called saying he knew where Madeleine was and wanted to speak to the McCanns."This did not appear to be a crank call and the information was felt credible enough to warrant the couple being informed immediately.

The McCanns were in Berlin preparing to fly to Amsterdam but were advised to delay take-off.

The situation was so critical that it was felt they could not afford to be out of touch on the plane, even for an hour during the short flight.

Kate and Gerry McCann looked utterly exhausted as they prepared for their trip to Amsterdam.
The trip, part of the the battle to find their missing daughter, has a personal note - they lived there when Madeleine was a baby.

The couple spent all of 2004 in the Dutch city and have not returned since. They said they never dreamed they would be back today without Madeleine.

It is 35 days since the four-year-old was abducted from the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz. Her parents have flown across Europe from Portugal to Italy, Spain, Germany and now the Netherlands to raise awareness about her disappearance.

Today's visit and appeal for information marks the end of the European aspect of their campaign to find Madeleine.

A further trip to Morocco and northern Africa is planned for the weekend.

Mr and Mrs McCann flew from Berlin to Amsterdam by private Hawker jet last night and spent a quiet but emotional evening with friends.

Mr McCann, a cardiologist, worked in Amsterdam three years ago, focusing on MRI imaging of the heart.
Madeleine was a little more than eight months old when the couple arrived and Mrs McCann was pregnant with twins Sean and Amelie when they left.

The couple said they expected today's visit to be a highly emotional one.

They will undertake the now familiar round of interviews and media appeals to help track down their daughter.

Portugal is a popular destination for Dutch tourists and the McCanns hope their public appeal will encourage someone with information to come forward. Scroll down for more ...

Four-year-old Madeleine has been missing since May 3

They are due to meet British ambassador Lyn Parker and the Consul General in Amsterdam Bernhard Garside.

They will then discuss child welfare issues with Fronske Eendebak Winkel, national police co-ordinator for missing persons and representatives from the organisation Child Focus.

Mr and Mrs McCann are keen to return to the Algarve promptly this afternoon after two nights away from two-year-old Sean and Amelie.

They also want to get back in time to attend a jazz concert in honour of Madeleine being held in Lagos at 8.30pm tonight.

Yesterday, the campaign to find their daughter was briefly overshadowed when the McCanns were forced to deny they had any involvement in her abduction.

They looked appalled when they were asked by a German journalist if they had anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance.

Sabine Mueller from German Radio said there were people suggesting that the couple's behaviour since her abduction was not normal.
"They seem to imply that you might have something to do with it," she said. Mr McCann hit back, saying: "I have never heard before that anyone considers us suspects in this and the Portuguese police certainly don't. "Without going into too much detail, we were with a large group of people. There is absolutely no way Kate and I are involved in this abduction." I know where Madeleine is, says mystery man | the Daily Mail

'Somebody Knows Who Has Madeleine'

The parents of Madeleine McCann have dismissed claims they were involved in her disappearance - and called on the German people to help in the search.

McCanns hold press conference

In a press conference in Germany they also urged the public to come forward with information.

"Somebody knows who has Madeleine - we want to reach the public.

"Somebody can help us find her. Just one telephone call... either a location or a name."

Gerry and Kate McCann are in Berlin to promote the hunt for their four-year-old, who was kidnapped 34 days ago in the Algarve.

"We want to ask for any tourists from Germany who were in Praia da Luz in the two weeks leading up to May 3, if you have any digital photos to send them tothe website - http://www.madeleine.ceopupload.com/"
When asked about the campaign, Mr McCann said: "We hope and pray every single day that this finishes and that Madeleine is returned to us safely.

"We don't want a long-term campaign - we just want her back."

Their visit - which has provoked considerable interest - coincides with the first day of the G8 summit in Heiligendamm near Rostock in the north of the country.

Asked about their fears for Madeleine, Mr McCann said: "We have got to keep going, we believe she is alive. There is an absence of evidence to the contrary.

"We think it is more likely that she is alive than not alive."

Mrs McCann, wearing green and yellow ribbons tied to her waist, added: "There has been a lot of speculation and it is hard not to think the worst.

"But as time goes on and there still isn't any news, we have to think positively."

The McCanns started the day with a sofa-style chat on the German television Sat 1 breakfast show where they sat close together, holding hands for support.

They then moved on to news channel N24.

Speaking candidly about leaving their little girl in the apartment while they ate at a tapas bar yards away, Mr McCann went on: "Of course we blame ourselves.

"But we do not blame each other. Kate and I are very much together in this.

"Blame would have torn us apart. When things go wrong, people like to blame somebody, anybody. But what has helped us is that we haven't looked back at the negative."

Mrs McCann dismissed criticism that they are courting too much publicity in the search for Madeleine.
"We have got to feel happy that we have done absolutely everything we can to get our daughter back - I don't think any parent would be critical of that."

06/12/2007

The Global Parents

By Jochen-Martin Gutsch

Four-year-old Madeleine vanished five weeks ago, and her disappearance set off an unprecedented search. The parents have become media darlings, and were even granted an audience with the pope -- and Berlin's mayor.

AP

Gerry and Kate McCann appealed for information from German tourists at a news conference in Berlin last week.

First they appeared on Germany's main early morning TV show, then in a studio of the N24 news channel, and after that they were driven in a gray-blue Renault to the German government's press center in central Berlin. Now they are sitting here, in room 5/6, telling their story.

It's a story they have told countless times in recent weeks. It has appeared in the print and broadcast media hundreds of times and, as a result, the story has gradually ballooned in impact and importance. A few days ago Gerry and Kate McCann saw the pope in Rome, perhaps the most powerful ally of all for a Catholic couple from Rothley, a small town near the English city of Leicester.

Today, in Berlin, they have brought along a German-language missing poster and a small pair of pajamas. Inroom 5/6, normally a venue where cabinet ministers and secretaries of state explain the German government's policies to the media, Gerry McCann holds up the pajama pants to the cameras, like a piece of evidence.

Kate McCann holds up the short-sleeved pajama top. The pajamas are identical to the ones the McCann's daughter Madeleine was wearing on the night of her disappearance. The couple stands there for a moment, looking lost behind the enormous podium, facing a wall of photographers, reporters and cameras. A white-haired interpreter is sitting next to the McCanns, as is Clarence Mitchell, their press agent.

World's most famous parents

Mitchell tells the assembled reporters that anyone asking questions should bear in mind that Kate and Gerry are two completely ordinary people. But that's debatable. In fact, at this moment Kate and Gerry are probably the world's most famous parents. The McCanns.

FROM THE MAGAZINE

They have done their utmost to ensure that the story of their daughter Madeleine doesn't die. They jet around the world in a private plane a British businessman has made available. They have the support of the pope, David Beckham, Joanne K. Rowling, Prince Charles and all of Britain. In fact, they have the whole world behind them. They are running the largest privately-organised hunt in history.

On the evening of May 3, the McCanns put their children -- two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie and their eldest daughter Madeleine, who was three at the time -- to bed in a two-room apartment on the mezzanine level of the "Ocean Club." The family was vacationing in Praia da Luz, a resort on Portugal's Algarve coast.
Gerry and Kate McCann waited until their children were asleep, and at about 8 p.m. they left the apartment to join friends at the resort's restaurant only about 150 feet away. Indeed, they were so close that they were able to watch the door of their apartment from the table. As the McCanns would later testify, they checked on the children every half hour.

At about 10 p.m., and in this respect their accounts are contradictory, Kate opened the door to the apartment to check on the children. Madeleine's sandals stood in front of her bed, and Cuddly Cat, the girl's stuffed animal, was on the bed next to the pillow. The twins were asleep. But the window was open and Madeleine was not in her bed. A few minutes later Gerry saw his wife running out of the apartment, screaming.

AP

Madeleine, now four years old, went missing on May 3.

Appeal to German tourists

The incident happened more than five weeks ago, and the couple has been searching ever since. Speaking directly to the cameras, Gerry McCann, a 39-year-old physician, appeals to all German tourists who were in Praia da Luz during the two weeks before May 3 to look through their vacation photos. Maybe they show some unknown person in the background. McCann holds up a sign with an Internet address to which photos can be uploaded. Police experts, he says, will examine the photos for possible clues.

They are looking for a Mister X, and they believe he could have been captured by a tourist's camera.

There is already a suspect. Gerry McCann rattles off the description. A man was seen at the resort, he says, who looked about 35 to 40, was approximately 1.75 meters (5' 9") tall, had short black hair, and was wearing a jacket, beige trousers and dark shoes. An everyman.

Why are you searching in Germany? a reporter asks.

"According to the experts, the Algarve is especially popular among the Germans and the Dutch, next to the British," says McCann, speaking in a hard Scottish accent.

There has been criticism of your media campaign, someone says.

"Every step has been coordinated with the experts," says McCann. "You know, it's a good feeling to be able to do something. Just sitting around and waiting -- no one can endure that."

How much longer will you continue your search?

"I don't know. Weeks? Months? We don't want a long campaign. We pray that it will be over every day."

Do you think about the possibility that Madeleine could be dead? someone asks.

"We think it's more likely that she is alive," says McCann.

Do you blame yourself?

"Yes, we are the parents."

The press conference ends and they hurry off to their next meeting. A woman standing at the entrance hands Gerry McCann a note. "Information," she whispers. McCann thanks the woman and places the note into a binder -- the one containing all the other notes people hand him every day.

They climb into the blue-gray Renault, and Gerry McCann looks around, almost as if he were getting his bearings. The car takes them to the justice ministry. Later on they have an appointment with Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's mayor. It's a hot day in Berlin. They are more than 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) from the place where the whole thing began. But that ceased to be an issue long ago.

The McCanns, together with other vacationers and club employees, spent the night and the early morning hours of May 4 searching the resort. The police arrived and the search continued until morning, but unsuccessfully. The McCanns called friends at home in Britain, and the friends immediately began using their connections. One friend knew a news reader, and another lived on the same street as the brother of Gordon Brown, the future prime minister.

Stars, business leaders join campaign

The story of Madeleine's disappearance quickly gathered momentum. Reporters and television crews traveled to Praia da Luz, and the Portuguese police, feeling the pressure, dispatched 150 officers to comb through the grounds and search wells and garbage cans. The owner of the resort provided the McCanns with a press agent, and as the media descended on the small community, the couple began giving interviews and press conferences. Friends put together a home page, which received 170 million hits in the coming weeks. Scotland Yard sent experts to Portugal, as the search for Madeleine McCann became a national affair -- and continued to grow.

David Beckham appealed for help in a TV commercial, as did Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese star at Manchester United and a native of the country where Madeleine disappeared. A video of Madeleine was shown at half-time during the FA Cup final, and British cinemas will soon begin showing a short film about Madeleine before each movie. Prince Charles says that he prays for the McCanns, the pope grants them an audience and blesses a photo of Madeleine, companies like BP, McDonald's and Exxon display photos of Madeleine in their outlets, the McCanns give press conferences in Madrid and Seville, and celebrities like Virgin CEO Richard Branson and football star Wayne Rooney donate a reward of three million pounds for valuable information.

Joanne K. Rowling plans to have bookmarks with Madeleine's picture printed and included with the latest of her "Harry Potter" books.

British police are planning to display pictures of Madeleine in the Second Life virtual world. And the McCanns are also reported to be trying to convince search engine Google to display their daughter's eyes in the double Os in its name on its site. The couple told news agency AFP that Google had yet to respond to their request.

The McCanns stagger through Berlin as if possessed. He, straight-backed, wears a black jacket. She, thin and petite, wears a pink top and holds a worn stuffed animal in her hand: Cuddly Cat. They want to keep public interest in the case alive as long as possible. About 1,600 children and adolescents disappear in Germany every year, but there are no reliable figures for Britain. The numbers conceal silent fates and unknown folders in forgotten search files, the files that represent dead stories, cold cases.

Photogenic parents

Perhaps the McCanns were lucky, or perhaps their case contains all the requisite elements of a media event: a likeable professional couple, a pretty blonde girl, a club in Portugal, the ocean. No subsidized housing and no alcohol. The McCanns seemed made for the front pages, suitable to be turned into icons, people with whom one can identify. And everyone would do exactly what the McCanns have done -- if they had the means. Now it's become possible to follow the McCanns as they travel the world searching for their missing daughter. Two parents on the hunt for Mr. X.

Essentially there has been no news for weeks -- no new suspect and no new information. As the McCanns run from one appearance to the next, they are also running for themselves, running to reassure themselves that they are doing everything humanly possible.

It's afternoon and the McCanns are standing next to Mayor Klaus Wowereit in Berlin's Red City Hall. They have spent 15 minutes with the mayor, but what they discussed isn't entirely clear. Nor is it clear how the mayor of Berlin can help this couple. But the room is full of journalists, and that's all that counts at this juncture. Maddie's story must not die.

The McCanns are already in Amsterdam by evening. Their next stop is Morocco. A Norwegian tourist told them that she saw a man there with a blonde child wearing pajamas.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Tomorrow Madeleine McCann will have been missing for 100 days. Here her parents Kate and Gerry talk to Steve Boggan about their new website for missing children, and how they're coping - not only with the loss of their four-year-old daughter, but also with the barrage of speculation they've been subjected to over the past week

Gerry and Kate McCann leave a hotel on route to an interview with television crews in Praia da Luz, Algarve, Portugal. Photograph: Steve Parsons/Getty images It had been another Groundhog Day for Kate McCann, and it showed on her face.

A potential sighting of her daughter Madeleine, this time on the Belgian-Dutch border, had come to nothing, so her day was just like the day before, and the day before that. "We can't afford to get our hopes up every time there is a sighting," said Kate. Tomorrow Madeleine will have been missing for 100 days.

In the apartment in Praia da Luz where Kate and her husband Gerry now spend their days, reminders of four-year-old Madeleine are everywhere. Yellow rubber wristbands with Look for Madeleine printed on them are tangled up in a plastic bag on the sideboard. On a coffee table, harried by the wind blowing from their sea-view balcony, are flyers that bear the girl's image, focused intently on that right eye with its unusualiris. For the McCanns, Madeleine is everywhere and nowhere.

This week, the largely positive media circus surrounding the couple, and their campaign to get their daughter back, turned sour. Fuelled by what appear to be off-the-record briefings from local police sources, the Portuguese media began publishing increasingly hostile stories.

With the discovery by British sniffer dogs of specks of blood in Madeleine's bedroom, parts of the press began suggesting that the McCanns were now the focus of the police investigation; friends of the McCanns felt it necessary to publicly dismiss such speculation. And yesterday things got worse when the McCanns were obliged to take their two-year-old twins out of a local playgroup because other parents had complained of the press attention they were attracting.

"The thing is that this is all speculation," Kate said on the phone yesterday. "We went through all this similar speculation right at the beginning and it doesn't help really. Until people know the facts, it doesn't help."

"It doesn't help [Madeleine], that's for sure," Gerry said. "The hardest thing is that we can't comment on theinvestigation in any detail because we are witnesses and so much of what has been written is pretty hard to see. Some terrible things have been written."

In the past week I have twice met the couple in their seaview apartment. When we first talked last Friday - two days before this latest storm of publicity blew up over the specks of blood - the couple went through the story of how their daughter went missing.

Madeleine disappeared from apartment 5a of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz on the evening of May 3. Kate and Gerry, both 39-year-old doctors - she is a GP, he a consultant cardiologist - were dining with friends near the apartment, but had been popping back regularly to check on both Madeleine and her twin brother and sister, Sean and Amelie.

"We were checking on the children several times an hour," said Kate. "At one point I went back to check. It was quiet and I went into their bedroom and Madeleine wasn't there. I kept looking and thinking to myself, 'She must be here.' I thought she must be in her bed, but she wasn't.

"Then there was this horrible panic and fear. There was no shadow of doubt that Madeleine had been taken and that is why the panic was so immediate and so real. It was awful. I guess I just felt I had let her down and I was desperately sorry that we weren't there."

She and Gerry, from Rothley in Leicestershire, constantly held hands and comforted one another as they talked, she in her light Liverpool accent, he in his Glaswegian.

The reason they had agreed to talk to the Guardian was to publicise Don't You Forget About Me, a new internet site where parents will be able to post videos, images and information about their missing children.

The couple have formed a partnership with Google, YouTube and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) in the US to set up what they believe will become a global central database of missing children. If it works, youtube.com/dontyouforgetaboutme, which launches today, could become the focus of hope for thousands of families.

The two-bedroom apartment where they're living, and planning this new website, has been lent to them by friends. This is the spot from which an unprecedented missing person campaign has been conducted, but it isn't full of slick PR people on their mobile phones. There is a laptop owned by their campaign manager, former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Justine McGuinness (paid for by donations), a fax machine and a kettle that barely gets time to cool. And that's about it.

Kate sat and clutched Cuddles the cat, Madeleine's favourite toy, while we talked. It is the same toy she is always holding in pictures; she hardly ever puts it down. She seemed thin and fragile, and at one point, trying to explain that one of the yellow bands on her wrist was made by the school Madeleine was due to go to in three weeks' time, she burst into tears.

Since Madeleine went missing, the two have learned a great deal about missing children around the world. "Because of what has happened to Madeleine we have become aware of so many other children that have gone missing, and also a lot about how many children are abducted, and the extent of child sexual exploitation," said Kate. "It's horrific. We are reasonably worldly people but I just couldn't believe it when we were told about the scale of the problem.

"In England and Wales alone - this is going back to 2003 - there were more than 1,000 attempted stranger abductions; 100 of those were actual abductions that led to the child being taken away by a stranger, not a parental abduction, and in more than one-third of these the child was not retrieved within 24 hours."

About six weeks ago, one of their close-knit circle of family and friends had the idea of using YouTube as a vehicle for finding children. What if the site could be administered by the world's largest organisation dedicated to finding them, ICMEC in the US?

"My first approach to ICMEC was to see if they would take on the roles of administering and regulating the channel," said Gerry. "Technically, we could have had it ready in no time with Google's help [Google owns YouTube], but the key thing for us was the regulation ... of the channel.

First of all we have to verify that the child on any video is actually missing. The second thing is to check that the authorities have been notified that the child is missing. And the third thing is that the images themselves are not exploitative." The McCanns have high hopes for the project, predicting that it could revolutionise the way law enforcement agencies around the world look for children.

"There is no good data out there but the latest figures for missing children and runaways in the United States is 800,000 each year," said Ernest Allen, chief executive of ICMEC. "In the UK the figure is 105,000; Austria, 1,600; France, 39,000; Germany, 50,000; Greece, 500; Ireland, 1,250; Italy, 1,100; Portugal, 725; and Spain, 8,400.

"There is no international uniformity in gathering information or reporting it. I mean, the fact that there were 50,000 missing children in Germany and only 500 in Greece tells you something about the way each country deals with the problem. Some people aren't counting."

For more than 25 years, ICMEC has been forging partnerships with missing children agencies around the world. "We had set up missing children websites in 14 countries," says Allen. "And then Gerry came along with this idea. We hadn't thought of using YouTube. Now it will allow us to have one worldwide clearing house for all the information on missing children. There is no doubt in my mind, this will help to reunite abducted and missing children with their parents. It is completely revolutionary."

There has been criticism in some quarters that the couple's media campaign has been too slick, but the McCanns point out that less than £70,000 has been spent so far on staff, accommodation, transport and communications. McGuinness is being paid. So too are two others fielding thousands of media calls in the UK.

"The campaign really evolved by itself and just involved family and friends coming up with ideas and putting them into action," said Gerry. A stranger in France bought the domain name findmadeleine.com and donated it to the family. A former student of Gerry's sister set up the campaign website. Back home in Rothley, Kate's uncle, Brian Kennedy, became the chair of the fighting fund, which has raised £1m so far.

One of Madeleine's godparents produced pictures and a DVD of Madeleine and distributed them to the media. The husband of one of Kate's cousins approached large corporations to help with funding and the distribution of information. A second cousin of Gerry's produced 50,000 cards with information about Madeleine and circulated them at the Uefa Cup final in Glasgow. And so on.

"We have had politicians and famous people making appeals for us, but not, as it might have seemed, because we are well connected," said Gerry. "People just did these things off their own bat. For example, before I became a cardiologist full time, I used to do a bit of sports medicine. My old boss knew Alex Ferguson and asked if he could help. Before we knew it, there was David Beckham making an appeal for Madeleine. A lot of people who have helped have done it simply because they are good individuals with children of their own."

When Madeleine first went missing, reaction to the fact that her parents were not in the apartment that night was muted. It was perhaps felt that it would be in bad taste to criticise parents at such an awful time.

As time has passed, however, such reticence has evaporated. How have they coped with that? "The criticism is very hard and very hurtful," said Kate. "Considering what we are going through already, it seems very cruel. I know this is a small group of people. Most have been very supportive. We have had thousands and thousands of letters from people and every line of every letter they have written has helped us get through another day.

"I have had hundreds of people get in touch and say, 'We do exactly what you have done. Don't ever blame yourself; you have to remember here who has committed the crime. It was someone who broke in and took Madeleine from the bed.'" "For us it just felt like we were dining in the garden," said Gerry.

You wonder what they feel in their darkest moments, and I saved the hardest question for last. Would it be easier if they had some kind of closure? "In the first few days all we thought about was the worst and it was just the worst experience ever," said Kate. "Now we have more hope than we did in those first few days. Don't get me wrong - we are not blinkered. Obviously we still have those dark thoughts but they are not helpful. Sometimes you just have to blank them out."

The couple said they had no plans to return to England as yet. "I know it might seem illogical, but I feel closer to Madeleine here," said Kate. "Yes, there are probably things we could do even better from the UK, but just right now it wouldn't feel right to leave."

As I left the apartment after our second interview last Saturday, the police were about to begin a fresh search of the garden of Robert Murat, the only official suspect, less than 100 metres away.

That seems to have come to nothing; it is too soon to say yet what those specks of blood in the apartment might mean, if anything. Meanwhile the couple keep going, with sensational stories, apparently based on not very much at all, swirling around them. When I rang to see how they were doing yesterday, Gerry said: "It has been 14 weeks now and it is pretty apparent that there has been a shift in the investigation. We are not privy to why that is." And then with typical understatement, he added: "The last few days have been difficult."

Kate and Gerry McCann slept in separate beds after an argument during their family holiday, the police files revealed.
Mrs McCann stayed in her children's room the night before Madeleine's disappearance because she was upset that her husband had 'ignored' her at dinner.
But she said she was not sure Mr McCann even noticed her absence. In his police statement he said he thought she had moved because he was snoring.

Row: Kate McCann slept in the children's bedroom the night before Madeleine vanished after an argument with husband, Gerry

The detail in the massive police file reveals how ordinary the McCanns' Portugal holiday was until the terrible events of May 3, when Madeleine vanished.
Like any parents with a young family, the McCanns occasionally argued and snapped at each other.

Mrs McCann's witness statement from September 6 last year – the day before she was made a formal suspect – records how police asked if she had ever slept in her daughter's bedroom.
She confirmed it had happened once, on the night of May 2, after an argument.
The statement reads: 'Asked if she ever slept in Madeleine's room, she said it happened on Wednesday because she had fallen out with Gerry after he ignored her after dinner when they went to the tapas bar.
'She decided to retaliate by sleeping in another room in the bed near the window.
'She does not know whether Gerry was aware that she slept in the other room as he was already asleep when she left. If her husband was aware of this situation, he did not comment on it.'

Seating: A table plan drawn by Kate McCann shows where the McCanns and their friends were sitting at dinner on the night Madeleine vanished

Mrs McCann also told police that Madeleine slept in her parents' room on May 1, but did not say why.

McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell refused to comment on the contents of the witness statement.
The police files also reveal the couple did not sit next to each other at dinner on the night Madeleine vanished.
Mrs McCann drew a plan showing where the McCanns and their friends were sitting at the tapas restaurant at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz on May 3 last year.
The diagram shows that Fiona Payne sat between the couple.
The friends on holiday with the McCanns when Madeleine went missing - who have become known as the 'Tapas Seven' - were crucial to the investigation.
They were moving around the Ocean Club complex throughout the evening checking on their children.
One of the seven, Jane Tanner, believes she saw Madeleine being abducted but did not realise it at the time.
The other people dining with the McCanns that night were Rachael and Matthew Oldfield, Ms Tanner's partner Russell O'Brien and Mrs Payne's husband David and her mother Dianne Webster.
Another image from the files shows an aerial shot of the trail followed by sniffer dogs searching for Madeleine and where it ran cold.
Mr and Mrs McCann alway strenuously denied any involvement in her disappearance. Portuguese prosecutors shelved the case and formally cleared them on July 21.

A planned reconstruction of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann involving her parents and their friends has been scrapped over suspicions about the motives of Portuguese police.
Kate and Gerry McCann and the so-called Tapas Seven - the friends they were dining with in the resort's tapas restaurant when Madeleine vanished - had been due to fly to the Algarve tomorrow.
The plan was to re-enact their movements leading up to the discovery that the three-year-old was missing. But a family friend revealed yesterday how some of them had pulled out after growing uneasy about the decision to stage the replay more than a year on.
The friend said the McCanns, both doctors from Rothley, Leicestershire, believe it would have done 'absolutely nothing' to help find their daughter not least because police had refused requests to televise it.
The couple and the Tapas Seven - friends Matthew and Rachael Oldfield, David and Fiona Payne, Russell O'Brien, his partner Jane Tanner and Dianne Webster, Mrs Payne's mother - were due to take part in the reconstruction at the Mark Warner resort in Praia da Luz.
Their decision to pull out will further damage relations between the police and the McCanns, who were made official suspects in the case in September.
Madeleine disappeared from the bedroom of the family's holiday apartment on May 3 last year. Her parents deny any wrongdoing.

Kate and Gerry McCann: Maddie's parents had been due to the fly out to the Algarve

A friend of the couple said: 'It was a case of all nine of them take part or it doesn't happen at all from the police's point of view, so the whole thing is off.
'The whole group have had grave reservations about the value of it. They want to help the police but keep asking themselves "Why now, more than one year on? What on earth is it going to achieve?"
'They also question why it was not to be televised and why police just want the nine and not other holidaymakers and staff to take part.'
Mrs McCann, 40, her 39-year-old husband and their friends had originally been asked to return to Portugal two weeks ago. But the date was extended because the couple had been undecided about the trip.

A friend of Kate and Gerry McCann, who was with them the night their daughter Madeleine disappeared, has launched a furious attack on the Portuguese police.
Rachael Oldfield, a member of Tapas Seven, accused detectives of 'outrageous' leaks of case information to the media.
She said officers were guilty of 'double standards' for insisting the group obey strict secrecy laws.Scroll down for more...

Tapas Seven: (Clockwise from top left) Fiona Payne, Jane Tanner, Russell O' Brien and Rachael Oldfield, who has accused the PJ of 'outrageous' leaks to the media

She told the BBC: 'They leaked information and these rumours that have flown around for the past year - it is outrageous. We have all felt very angry about it.
'We were asked to comply with the Portuguese judicial secrecy laws (under) which we were made to understand that we could face two years in prison for speaking out.
'So, as a group, we have not said anything from day one. There have been all these rumours flying around and leaks from sources close to the PJ (Policia Judiciaria), which we haven't been able to refute.
'We would have loved to have spoken out really and just put the record straight, but believed that the investigation would be the best way of finding Madeleine if we co-operated with the police and complied by their rules and regulations.'
Her comments were made in the documentary Searching for Madeleine, which is due to be broadcast tonight on Radio 4.
Meanwhile, Mr McCann said they have so little contact with Portuguese detectives they can't be sure if police are still looking for Madeleine.
Speaking on the programme, he said: "I think it's safe to say we're getting very little information.
"We haven't had any communication in terms of what's been done in the investigation."
Asked by interviewer Steve Kingstone whether he is convinced the police are still trying to find his daughter, Mr McCann replied: "I don't know because we don't have that information.
"Obviously we'd like to know. We'd like to know why the files are still secret almost a year on with a change in the penal code.Scroll down for more...

Leaks: Kate and Gerry McCann with a picture of their missing daughter Madeleine. The couple have already accused the Portuguese police of 'blatant' attempts to smear them

"We would like to know what is being done to find Madeleine.
"We'd like to know who has been eliminated from the inquiry and on what grounds and what leads are still being followed.
"We've always said we want to leave no stone unturned and to do that, we need to know which stones have already been overturned."
Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 last year.
Although the McCanns remain arguidos - suspects - in their daughter's disappearance, they deny any wrongdoing.
Mrs Oldfield said: 'Anyone with an ounce of common sense would be able to see they couldn't have done it.
'I was there on the night - it was agonising. There was just no way that they were involved in anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance.'
Earlier this month, the McCanns accused Portuguese police of a 'blatant' attempt to smear them after transcripts from police interviews with the couple were leaked through journalist Nacho Abad, of Spanish television programme Ana Rosa Quintana.
On the day the couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were in Brussels to launch a bid for a Europe-wide missing-child alert system, it emerged that Madeleine had asked her mother the night before she disappeared: "Mum, why didn't you come when we were crying last night?".

Missing: Madeleine McCann disappeared from her parents' holiday apartment last May

Kate McCann told police of the conversation in her first interview after her daughter went missing.

She added: "Gerry and I talked about it for several minutes and decided to watch over the children more carefully at night."
On May 2, Mrs Oldfield was in the next-door flat - on the other side of Madeleine's wall - all evening and heard no crying.
The Tapas Seven - Mrs Oldfield and her husband Matthew, Jane Tanner, her partner Dr Russell O'Brien, David Payne, his wife Fiona, and her mother Dianne Webster - took it in turns to make regular, 20-minute checks on the children during the night.
After the leak, the McCanns urged the Portuguese Justice Ministry to launch an internal investigation into the disclosures.
At the time, the family's spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry have been subjected to leaks and smears from day one and I'm afraid this has all the hallmarks of yet another poor attempt to influence the headlines on the very day that they are seeking to achieve some good in Europe."
His comments prompted an angry response from Portuguese police who said the claims were "baseless".
A spokesman for the PJ said: "The Policia Judiciaria regrets the baseless intervention of the spokesman above all at a moment when significant moves were being made in the investigation."
From within Portugal, the police are coming under pressure to make public the case files which, under judicial secrecy laws, currently remain closed.
Antonio Marinho e Pinto, President of the Portuguese Order of Lawyers, told the BBC: "There are strong reasons to fear that judicial secrecy is being used... to conceal the fact that the police have gone down a blind alley and don't have a way out."

A planned reconstruction of the night Madeleine McCann vanished has been hampered by extravagant demands by the McCanns' friends, police are said to have claimed yesterday.
Portuguese officers have asked Kate and Gerry McCann and the so-called Tapas Seven to return to the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz for a re-enactment of the events of May 3 last year.Scroll down for more...

The couple are considering the request, but police allegedly said their friends demanded private jet travel and five-star hotel accommodation.
A source is said to have told the Portuguese tabloid newspaper 24 Horas: 'The demands they make to return are impossible to entertain.
'One of the couples demanded a private jet to travel with their children to the Algarve. Another demanded they be put up in a five-star hotel.
'The demands they all made demonstrate a clear strategy by lawyers. The only thing missing from the list was a request that we send them to the Moon on skates.'

Scroll down for more...

Key witness: Jane Tanner, one of the Tapas Seven, said she saw a man carrying away a child near the McCanns' holiday flat

The McCanns, their seven friends, their spokesman Clarence Mitchell, his predecessor and two other holiday friends were all asked to return for the reconstruction, the newspaper reported.

Madeleine: Missing for almost a year

The Tapas Seven are university friends Matthew Oldfield, Russell O'Brien, David and Fiona Payne, plus Mr Oldfield's wife Rachael, Mr O'Brien's partner Jane Tanner and Mrs Payne's mother Dianne Webster.
All have been re-interviewed by British police this week - at the request of their Portuguese counterparts - about their accounts of the night of May 3.
Portuguese police were said to be suspicious about a series of alleged contradictions and inconsistencies in their witness statements.
Senior police chief Guilhermino Encarnacao confirmed that some of the witnesses - who also included a man who played tennis against Mr McCann and TV producer Jeremy Wilkins, who saw Mr McCann on the might of May 3 - had imposed certain conditions on their return to Portugal.
But he told 24 Horas: 'The reconstruction is important but it's not crucial to the investigations.'

Police have asked the McCanns to return to Portugal to take part in a reconstruction of the night their daughter disappeared, it emerged today.

The request was revealed as British officers began questioning members of the so-called Tapas Seven - friends of the couple who dined with them in Praia da Luz the night Madeleine vanished.
But Kate and Gerry McCann's official spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, has already said they will not go back to the resort in the Algarve as long as they remain "arguidos" or suspects in the case.
The revelation came as questioning begun of the friends of Kate and Gerry McCann who were with the couple on the night their daughter Madeleine disappeared.

Three Portuguese officers are sitting in as British detectives in Leicestershire started to interview members of the so-called 'Tapas Seven' - who dined with the couple in Praia da Luz on 3 May last year.

The seven are among a list of 24 people due to be grilled by detectives over the next four days.
But the McCanns themselves will not face new interrogations.
Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the couple had planned a pre-arranged visit to Brussels to lobby Euro MPs for a better alert system for missing children, and denied the trip was a "smokescreen".
He said they welcomed the latest police move and would be willing to be interviewed again if it would help the investigation.

But prosecutors in Portugal were reported to have ruled there was no need for the couple to face fresh interrogations, fuelling speculation they could soon be cleared of being named suspects, or arguidos, in their daughter's disappearance.
The Algarve-based team is barred from conducting interrogations on British soil, but will monitor the questioning of the couple's friends by Leicestershire police.

The Tapas Seven will all be interviewed as witnesses and are free to leave at any time, a spokeswoman for Leicestershire Constabulary said. No lawyers will be present.
Portuguese police had requested the interviews and were also said to have asked for the McCanns' computers, Mrs McCann's diary and Madeleine's favourite Cuddle Cat toy to be seized, but it is understood that no property will be searched or seized.
The three-strong team from Portugal is expected to return to the Algarve on Friday but Leicestershire officers will continue to interview other witnesses, including the couple's spokesman Mr Mitchell.
Under Portuguese law named suspects, or arguidos, have the right to ask that police speak to witnesses who support them.

The McCanns have asked for up to 24 of their friends and family to be questioned about their relationship with Madeleine and their behaviour after her disappearance.
They will leave for Brussels on Wednesday to present a draft declaration to the European Parliament, and on Thursday they will give their first press conference since they were made official suspects in the investigation.
As arguidos they are forbidden from speaking about the events of May 3 or the police inquiry but can talk about wider issues about missing children.

Scroll down for more

Kate and Gerry McCann are due to travel to Brussels tomorrow. They will not face further interrogation

Mr Mitchell said it was "pure coincidence" that the McCanns were leaving Britain during the week of the police interviews.
He said: "To say this is a smokescreen is utter rubbish. It is pure co-incidence that police interviews are being conducted at the same time the European Parliament is sitting, and Kate and Gerry are tabling a motion."
Mr McCann, 39, and his 40-year-old wife are also due to talk about their campaign in a TV documentary to be screened on April 30, just days before the first anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance.

Jane Tanner: One of the 'Tapas Seven' who has said she is happy to be questioned again

The couple will not return to Portugal for the anniversary unless their arguido status is lifted, but some of their relatives are expected to go to Praia da Luz for the poignant milestone.
Meanwhile they hope the police interviews could be the next step towards clearing their names over alleged contradictions in their accounts of the night of May 3.
Mr Mitchell said: "No one wants to change their testimony and no one is concerned about the interviews.
"Kate and Gerry hope the police will realise there is no evidence to implicate them and will finally clear them of their arguido status. Their friends are keen to assist the police and wonder why it has taken so long.
"This is a voluntary process, they are not being coerced or threatened, and none of them will be made suspects."
The Tapas Seven - Jane Tanner and her partner Russell O'Brien, Fiona Payne and her husband David and mother Dianne Webster, and Matthew and Rachael Oldfield - have all said they are happy to be questioned again.

The so-called Tapas Seven who dined with the couple on the night their daughter Madeleine disappeared are among a list of 24 people due to be grilled by detectives over the next four days.
But the McCanns themselves will not face new interrogations and are due to leave Britain during the Portuguese police visit.
Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell insisted the couple were on a pre-arranged visit to Brussels to lobby Euro MPs for a better alert system for missing children, and denied the trip was a "smokescreen".
He said they welcomed the latest police move and would be willing to be interviewed again if it would help the investigation.
But prosecutors in Portugal were reported to have ruled there was no need for the couple to face fresh interrogations, fuelling speculation they could soon be cleared of being named suspects, or arguidos, in their daughter's disappearance.

Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell insisted the couple were on a pre-arranged visit to Brussels to lobby Euro MPs for a better alert system for missing children, and denied the trip was a "smokescreen"
He said they welcomed the latest police move and would be willing to be interviewed again if it would help the investigation.

But prosecutors in Portugal were reported to have ruled there was no need for the couple to face fresh interrogations, fuelling speculation they could soon be cleared of being named suspects, or arguidos, in their daughter's disappearance.
Interviews of the Tapas Seven are due to start on Tuesday and the friends will be asked a series of questions drawn up by the Portuguese police team.
The Algarve-based team is barred from conducting interrogations on British soil, but will monitor the questioning of the couple's friends by Leicestershire police.
They will all be interviewed as witnesses and are free to leave at any time, a spokeswoman for Leicestershire Constabulary said. No lawyers will be present.
Portuguese police had requested the interviews and were also said to have asked for the McCanns' computers, Mrs McCann's diary and Madeleine's favourite Cuddle Cat toy to be seized, but it is understood that no property will be searched or seized.
The three-strong team from Portugal is expected to return to the Algarve on Friday but Leicestershire officers will continue to interview other witnesses, including the couple's spokesman Mr Mitchell.
Under Portuguese law named suspects, or arguidos, have the right to ask that police speak to witnesses who support them.
The McCanns have asked for up to 24 of their friends and family to be questioned about their relationship with Madeleine and their behaviour after her disappearance.
They will leave for Brussels on Wednesday to present a draft declaration to the European Parliament, and on Thursday they will give their first press conference since they were made official suspects in the investigation.
As arguidos they are forbidden from speaking about the events of May 3 or the police inquiry but can talk about wider issues about missing children.
Mr Mitchell said it was "pure coincidence" that the McCanns were leaving Britain during the week of the police interviews.
He said: "To say this is a smokescreen is utter rubbish. It is pure co-incidence that police interviews are being conducted at the same time the European Parliament is sitting, and Kate and Gerry are tabling a motion."
Mr McCann, 39, and his 40-year-old wife are also due to talk about their campaign in a TV documentary to be screened on April 30, just days before the first anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance.
The couple will not return to Portugal for the anniversary unless their arguido status is lifted, but some of their relatives are expected to go to Praia da Luz for the poignant milestone.
Meanwhile they hope the police interviews could be the next step towards clearing their names over alleged contradictions in their accounts of the night of May 3.
Mr Mitchell said: "No-one wants to change their testimony and no-one is concerned about the interviews.
"Kate and Gerry hope the police will realise there is no evidence to implicate them and will finally clear them of their arguido status. Their friends are keen to assist the police and wonder why it has taken so long.
"This is a voluntary process, they are not being coerced or threatened, and none of them will be made suspects."
The Tapas Seven - Jane Tanner and her partner Russell O'Brien, Fiona Payne and her husband David and mother Dianne Webster, and Matthew and Rachael Oldfield - have all said they are happy to be questioned again.

Portuguese police are planning to question the so-called Tapas Nine during three days of interviews in a final attempt to solve the mystery of Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
The detectives believe there are inconsistencies in the accounts of what happened on the night the three-year-old vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz last May while the group of friends ate dinner with Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, in a nearby restaurant.
It had been believed that the detectives could spend up to two months in the UK.Scroll down for more...

Still missing: Madeleine McCann disappeared last May

However, a team led by chief investigator Paulo Rebelo is set to fly to Britain on April 7 to start interviews in Leicester the next day, and they are scheduled to return to the Algarve on April 11.
British police officers will conduct the interviews on behalf of their Portuguese counterparts, but Rebelo and his team will be allowed to sit in as they take place.
Mr and Mrs McCann, who are both still official suspects, are not expected to be questioned.Scroll down for more...

Police questions: Jane Tanner, one of the 'Tapas Nine', will be interviewed by British police in April

David Payne, Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner are rumoured to be the first three McCann holiday friends to be questioned.
A source told Portuguese daily 24 horas: "We are at a crucial phase of the process.
"There are clear contradictions in the statements that the McCanns and their friends who were eating tapas with them on May 3, gave.
"British police are going to question them again and put to them the questions formulated by the Portuguese Public Prosecution Service.
"The need to question Madeleine's parents again will be determined by the results of the interrogations of their holiday friends."
Dr Payne, a 41-year-old cardiovascular researcher from Leicester, was the last person outside the McCann family to see Madeleine at the Ocean Club resort on May 3.Scroll down for more...

No interview: Gerry and Kate McCann will not face further questions

Gerry asked him to check on his wife and children while he was having a tennis lesson at about 6.30pm.
Dr O'Brien, 36, from Exeter, was away from the rest of the group for up to 45 minutes between 9.30pm until 10.15pm while he tended to his own child, who was being sick in his apartment.
Attention has also focused on Jane Tanner's claim she saw a man carrying a girl from the McCanns' ground-floor apartment at about 9.15pm the night she disappeared.
However, another witness says he was outside the flat at the same time but did not see her or the mystery man.
The trio deny claims their initial statements contained any contradictions.
The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell says the Tapas Nine are keen to help police understand their original statements and want the re-interviewing to take place as soon as possible.

Portuguese police are planning to question the so-called Tapas Nine during three days of interviews in a final attempt to solve the mystery of Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
The detectives believe there are inconsistencies in the accounts of what happened on the night the three-year-old vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz last May while the group of friends ate dinner with Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, in a nearby restaurant.
It had been believed that the detectives could spend up to two months in the UK.

Scroll down for more

Still missing: Madeleine McCann disappeared last May

However, a team led by chief investigator Paulo Rebelo is set to fly to Britain on April 7 to start interviews in Leicester the next day, and they are scheduled to return to the Algarve on April 11.
British police officers will conduct the interviews on behalf of their Portuguese counterparts, but Rebelo and his team will be allowed to sit in as they take place.

Scroll down for more

Police questions: Jane Tanner, one of the 'Tapas Nine', will be interviewed by British police in April

No interview: Gerry and Kate McCann will not face further questions

Mr and Mrs McCann, who are both still official suspects, are not expected to be questioned.
David Payne, Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner are rumoured to be the first three McCann holiday friends to be questioned.
A source told Portuguese daily 24 horas: "We are at a crucial phase of the process.
"There are clear contradictions in the statements that the McCanns and their friends who were eating tapas with them on May 3, gave.
"British police are going to question them again and put to them the questions formulated by the Portuguese Public Prosecution Service.
"The need to question Madeleine's parents again will be determined by the results of the interrogations of their holiday friends."
Dr Payne, a 41-year-old cardiovascular researcher from Leicester, was the last person outside the McCann family to see Madeleine at the Ocean Club resort on May 3.
Gerry asked him to check on his wife and children while he was having a tennis lesson at about 6.30pm.
Dr O'Brien, 36, from Exeter, was away from the rest of the group for up to 45 minutes between 9.30pm until 10.15pm while he tended to his own child, who was being sick in his apartment.
Attention has also focused on Jane Tanner's claim she saw a man carrying a girl from the McCanns' ground-floor apartment at about 9.15pm the night she disappeared.
However, another witness says he was outside the flat at the same time but did not see her or the mystery man.
The trio deny claims their initial statements contained any contradictions.

The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell says the Tapas Nine are keen to help police understand their original statements and want the re-interviewing to take place as soon as possible.